Anheuser-Busch's Manual Barrientos works in the packaging section of the Fort Collins brewery on Thursday. The Fort Collins brewery is celebrating its 25th year. / Rich Abrahamson/The Coloradoan

Written by

Fast Facts

Anheuser-Busch’s six facilities in

Colorado: • Provide more than 1,000 jobs • Generate nearly $70 million in wages • Pay roughly $18 million in state, local and excise taxes • Contribute more than $490 million to charitable organizations, along with the company’s foundation • Help sponsor the Denver Broncos, Denver Nuggets, Colorado Avalanche and the Pepsi Center Source: Anheuser-Busch

More

ADVERTISEMENT

Stan Podolski can still see then-Mayor Ed Stoner riding the famous Clydesdale Hitch the day Anheuser-Busch’s first shipment rolled out of the beer giant’s Fort Collins brewery. It was a big day for a little city on the verge of growth.

Podolski moved to Fort Collins in 1985 from A-B’s St. Louis headquarters to help get the new brewery up and running. Expecting to stay just 18 months, Podolski became the plant controller and worked at the brewery until 1994. He left the company because his family wanted to remain in Fort Collins, and A-B had a tendency to move senior managers around to other plants.

Nearly three decades later, Podolski still lives in the area, and the behemoth Budweiser plant north of Fort Collins is celebrating 25 years as a part of the city’s fabric. It’s fair to say Fort Collins would be a completely different city had Anheuser-Busch never rolled into town.

The Budweiser plant remains one of the city’s largest employers, water users and economic drivers and rolls out some of the country’s most popular beers including Budweiser, Bud Lite, Michelob and new lines such as Shock Top.

The brewery has spawned development of spinoffs including American Eagle Distributing in Loveland, which distributes A-B products; the new Owens-Illinois bottling plant in Windsor; and Metal Container Corp., which produces its aluminum cans.

Much has changed for A-B since its 2008 merger with InBev, the Belgian beer maker that considered a hostile takeover to win A-B’s U.S. market share. Today A-B/InBev controls 47.6 percent of the U.S. beer market.

But much has stayed the same, said plant manager Kevin Fahrenkrog, who was named general manager after the merger. “The focus and passion of our brewers is still in our tradition of brewing an excellent quality of beer,” he said. “From that aspect it’s pretty much the same.”

The brewery also added new packaging lines, new products and smaller batches like 80254, a commemorative small batch named for a Fort Collins ZIP code.

Changes that residents worried about when InBev took over — including massive local job cuts — never materialized on the scale the community expected. In 2008, InBev slashed 1,400 jobs, the majority of which from its St. Louis headquarters.

(Page 2 of 4)

Longtime Fort Collins general manager Glenn Wilson was shown the door after 22 years with the company, part of the overall cuts. Wilson, who help open the Fort Collins brewery, was only its third manager.

“I was shocked when InBev took over,” said Podolski, 56, now CEO of Advanced Medical Imaging Consultants. “A-B was an American icon ... it’s gone from the family-owned benevolent dictatorship that treated its employees really well under the Busch family. InBev has a different focus. It’s profit-focused and geared toward shareholders.”

Many senior managers of his age have retired, Podolski said. “I think there was an intentional focus to move out the older mentality and a broad sweep to bring in people with a new mindset.”

At the time of the merger, A-B employed 700 and supported a $42 million payroll in Fort Collins. Today, Fahrenkrog won’t release the number of jobs at the brewery or percentage growth in the past five years, saying the information is proprietary.

“The brewery has done very well,” he said. “The operation is very healthy, and we’ve had a great opportunity to be able to hire and bring on new employees.”

A fact sheet from the company reports the brewery, its Fort Collins research facility, two sales offices in Denver, the Windsor can plant and Nutri-Turf Operations in Fort Collins account for more than 1,000 jobs and a payroll of nearly $70 million.

On a recent tour of the brewery, a guide said three shifts of about 250 workers each keep things running around the clock.

But the only paper trail regarding employment at the brewery comes from union membership, which is down since 2008. Teamsters Local Union 267 had 420 full-time and 155 part-time members at the end of 2008. In December 2012, membership stood at 380 full-time and 120 part-time, and so far this year 21 full-time workers have left the brewery.

Union membership does not include salaried or administrative staff.

Union leadership declined to be interviewed for the story, but its website says it is gearing up for contract negotiations later this year.

(Page 3 of 4)

The early years

While A-B now brews about 10 million barrels of beer a year in Fort Collins, its early days were often filled with intrigue and secrecy.

Private negotiations between A-B and the city began a full six years before the plant opened.

Competing with Greeley and Pueblo for the brewery, Fort Collins had to make its case: The city had good water, good transportation — Interstate 25 runs in front of the plant and a rail spur runs through the back — and a good workforce.

When negotiations became public, residents balked about their lack of involvement and fretted over the growth effects, bringing a unionized workforce to the city, air quality and, of course, water. Where would the brewery find the massive amount of water for its beer in the arid West?

The arguments heated up as 500 jobs teetered in the balance.

A-B eventually signed an agreement with the city and Platte River Power Authority to use 4,200 acre-feet of water from the Windy Gap Project on the Western Slope, assuring Fort Collins would have ample water to supply the brewery and still grow.

Water worries gave way to air quality issues when the brewery announced plans to power the plant with coal. It later opted for natural gas after the city and Environmental Protection Agency balked at a coal-fired plant.

“When we first got here there were mixed feelings about A-B being in town,” said Podolski, who arrived with his wife before the plant opened. “When we’d pull out our A-B credit union Visa card, people would either be happy it was there or say, ‘Oh, you’re with them,’ ” in a disgusted tone.

Today, the plant attracts more than 60,000 visitors a year for tours and to see the iconic Clydesdales housed there.

A-B has long touted its environmental stewardship and says in the past three years it has reduced its water use by 15 percent, increased its recycling rate to 99.8 percent and reduced its fuel use by 33 percent.

Last year the Colorado Industrial Energy Challenge program awarded the brewery for its energy efficiency and environmental leadership.

(Page 4 of 4)

Financing the plant

In the days before Urban Renewal Authorities and tax increment financing, the city racked up $55.5 million in debt to help finance construction of the brewery including streets around the facility, an I-25 interchange and water and wastewater service improvements.

It built a new substation to handle the brewery’s electrical demands.

Under the deal reached with the city, 100 percent of A-B’s use taxes and property taxes through March 1989 went to pay off the city’s debt. And for nine years after that, 30 percent of the tax burden went to reduce the debt.

Fort Collins’ reputation as a haven for funky, high-quality craft brewers might be built on the back of New Belgium Brewing Co., but a behemoth rising from the plains north of town is the big dog when it comes to market share.

The true economic impact of Anheuser-Busch on Fort Collins is hard to gauge through its 25 years, but longtime city observers said the tax base it provided and wages it paid changed the city for the better.

A 2011 economic impact study by Colorado State University economist Martin Shields showed breweries added $83.2 million to the Larimer County payroll and support 938 direct jobs.

While the study does not break down the breweries individually, there’s no question A-B is the big dog in the park.

“A-B has been an important corporate citizen,” Shields said. “It’s by far the largest employer of the group, and it’s got such an extensive distribution network attached to that. If you want to identify one brewery as the driver it would certainly be, from a global perspective, the dominant one.”